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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

First, OUAT has a spin-off, apparently called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (according to IMDB). Deadline states:

"[The series takes place before the curse in Wonderland] The story is told through the point of view of Alice (Sophie Lowe) who has a generous heart but carries the scars of a long hard life. She is joined by Cyrus (Peter Gadiot), Alice’s love interest, and the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha), a sardonic adventurer."

It will be lead by Ralph Hemecker, who directed some of the more interesting and meaty episodes of OUAT like "7:15am," "Hat Trick," "Broken," "Queen of Hearts," "The Miller's Daughter," and "Selfless, Brave and True." It will also be executive produced by Jane Epsenson, whose episodes of OUAT are some of the best written of the series.

Second, they have cast Paul Reubens as the White Rabbit.

Now, I have concerns. OUAT is known for it's shitty CGI, and it appears this series will take place in the green screen Barbie Palace that was Wonderland. Also, even though I watch it every week, OUAT is an incredibly uneven show. I worry that they are trying to capitalize on it's popularity, will spread themselves too thin, and not concentrate all their resources on making OUAT live up to it's potential consistently week to week and moment to moment. In addition, no one has got it right yet (at least in recent years). All the fairy tale shows and movies of recent years have had problems. None have solidly delivered a satisfying, quality fairy tale adaptation (whereas there are thousands of satisfying book adaptations. Take the hint, Hollywood and do what you do best. Adapt a book).

However, this team is definitely intriguing and I am looking forward to seeing where this goes! Especially alongside the sexy CW Wonderland tv show. With all the books being made into TV shows in the Fall, we could be looking a literary shitstorm, or a heyday for TV and books.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

This month has been crazy, so I have not had a chance to write as often as I like. Once May begins, everything should calm down, and I will be able to post more regularly. In the mean time, I give you a quick round up of fairy tale ephemera and news that has peeked my interest!

Jack Zipes on Disney's Snow WhiteTales of Faerie takes on fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes, rebutting his view on Disney's Snow White. It chronicles a history of the film, lists what Disney changed from the original tale, and tempers Zipes' strong opinions on gender roles with a more middle of the road approach:

"I always come back to the fact that-whereas suppression of women was a real problem in the past, we can be grateful we live in a time where there is much more freedom for each gender to break beyond stereotypes. We don't have to resort to the opposite extreme and see all stereotypes as evil. I personally am not bothered by female characters who do housework. I currently earn my own living as well as taking care of my home, and it just doesn't occur to me to get offended."

I certainly enjoy traditionally female gender role activities as well as non-traditional ones. I feel it is just as limiting to say that women should not be seen cooking and cleaning as it is to say that they should only be seen cooking and cleaning. Thoughts?

Why Can't Hollywood Make a Decent Fairy Tale Movie?
Charlie Jane Anders at Io9 examines what he believes the recent fairy tales are missing. He explores the modern films that have flopped and the older ones (like Disney) that have stood the test of time and he finds those that last have "a sense of sincerity and good humor." Disney felt fairy tales should have this formula:

"To captivate our varied and worldwide audience of all ages, the nature and treatment of the fairy tale, the legend, the myth have to be elementary, simple. Good and evil, the antagonists of all great drama in some guise, must be believably personalized. The moral ideals common to all humanity must be upheld. The victories must not be too easy. Strife to test valor is still and will always be the basic ingredient of the animated tale, as of all screen entertainments."

Anders feels that modern fairy tale films "turn the strife into CG and the valor into banter." They are lacking that heart and sincerity that make us so attracted to things like The Princess Bride. Anders feels it is the perfect time for fairy tales because "fairytales become more relevant when people feel powerless — many of us actually are in the position of having made bargains with entities whose true names we're not allowed to know, thanks to the magic of mortgage securitization. At the same time, we still dream of being lifted up from our drudgery to noble status — and we dread having everything that makes us part of middle-class society taken away, if we fall through the cracks the way so many people have."

Perhaps the sincere story is what we need right now, without all the wink-wink, nudge-nudge that post-Shrek Hollywood thinks is necessarily for success.

Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast: To marry or to sleep with?Tales of Faerie challenges Jack Zipes again, this time on his translation of the "original" Beauty and the Beast tale (a novella by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve). She compares the original french to his translation. Zipes tells the story with the more well-known formula, where each night the Beast asks Belle to marry him, and she refuses. In the French version, however, it seems he was asking her each night to sleep with him. Which actually makes a lot more sense to me: